


the truth runs wild

by laurabeth



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Advice, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), But also, Coming Out, Crying, Fluff, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gay Shiro (Voltron), Getting Together, Lactose Intolerant Keith (Voltron), M/M, Reunions, Sexuality Crisis, also i am projecting!!, shiro's advice to lance is my advice to questioning kids, that isn't mentioned but i feel like it is relevant to his journey, they are all safe thank god
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 08:32:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurabeth/pseuds/laurabeth
Summary: Lance is struggling with his sexuality. Shiro just wants to reassure him that it's okay.





	the truth runs wild

**Author's Note:**

> hope u enjoy! come yell with me about voltron at vld-pilots on tumblr!!

Lance couldn’t stop his mind from racing. Thoughts of Keith and his smile and how good he looked in that stupid Blade of Marmora suit and how Keith really had gotten taller and more gruff and how Lance just wanted to run his hands all over that chest and why does he want to do that oh my god-

Ever since the castle had been destroyed, it had been harder on Lance to find ways to destress. Normally, he would just play video games or tinker around with Hunk’s spare parts, or maybe he would trail after Allura as she floated through the castle on diplomatic missions. Sometimes, he would find Coran and take out all his stress on the cleaning pods. Coran always liked how clean they were after Lance cleaned them. But now that the castle was destroyed, Lance only had two options. He could stew in his stress and confusion and end up making himself worse or he could train in the Olkari’s training facility. Ever since the castleship was destroyed, they were staying with their allies who were graciously housing them and helping them to rebuild their ship. Their training room was eerily similar to the castle’s. Lance had basically found a new home there. 

Lance landed another kick to the poor training bot that was certainly taking too much abuse from him at the moment. He regained his balance before slashing his sword into the bot’s side and yanked hard, dragging his weapon through the bot and rendering it lifeless. Lance wiped his brow, panting as he started to shuffle to the side of the training room for a drink. He grabbed his water bottle, gulping the drink down. It had been way too long since he had last drunk anything. He couldn’t afford to get dehydrated right now. At least three paladins would be on his ass about that, now that they were paying attention to him again. 

He placed the now-empty water bottle back on the bench next to the rest of his stuff before treading back to the center of the room and clearly speaking “Start training sequence,” for probably the fifth time that afternoon. He braced himself as the bot came flying towards him, already prepared to take him out with a swing of his sword. Lance raised his sword, copying the stance that he had seen Keith effortlessly slip into so many times. God, there he was, thinking of Keith again. The whole point of training so strenuously was to get him off his mind. Lance sighed, side-stepping the training robot as it came close to him and knocking swords with it. Lance grunted as the robot pressed against him, his grip on his sword slipping slightly. He readjusted his grip, trying to find the leverage he would need to overcome the bot. But it turns out that he didn’t need to. All of a sudden, the bot was cut in half from the heat of Shiro’s Galra arm. “End training sequence,” He tersely commanded. 

“What are you doing?” Lance asked, wondering why Shiro had decided to cut the training short. Did he think that Lance wasn’t capable? He was probably right. Hardly anyone had thought that Lance could actually do anything nowadays. Apparently he was bad at everything. Shiro was bound to notice at some point, too. 

“You’re overworking yourself,” Shiro explained, as if Lance didn’t already know that. It was kind of the point. He handed Lance a fresh water bottle, the cap already cracked for him. Sometimes, Shiro was a real mom, out here cracking water bottles open for the paladins so they wouldn’t struggle. 

“You don’t think I can handle some training?” Lance rebutted, glaring at Shiro. 

“You’re more than capable, Lance. You know that, ” Shiro said, his eyebrows drawing together in his classic confused expression. “But you’ve been training for hours now. You need to rest.” 

“I need to train,” Lance disagreed, walking to place his new water bottle down.

Shiro was clearly puzzled. “Why?” 

Lance sighed, wondering if he should actually tell Shiro about anything. “I’m stressed. Training helps me to work off the stress in a healthy way.” 

“This is not healthy, Lance,” Shiro claimed, walking towards him and pushing him by the shoulders onto the bench. He took a seat next to him. “Training until you look like you’re about to collapse isn’t safe. What’s going on?” 

Lance ran his fingers over the bottle, his fingers catching on the ridges in its exterior. “I just have a lot on my mind lately.” 

Shiro chuckled lightly, relaxing against the wall. “Don’t we all?” 

“Yeah,” Lance agreed softly. “But even more than what everyone is facing. I’m just . . . confused about some stuff.” 

“Like what?” Shiro closed his eyes. Lance wondered how much he slept in the past week. They were all suffering some form of PTSD or another after this past year, Shiro no doubt had the worst of it. Lance barely slept himself without waking up at least twice throughout the night. “Maybe I can help.” 

“Well,” Lance started, unsure of where he was going to say. He wasn’t an idiot, everyone and their mom knew that Shiro was an openly gay man. It was common knowledge at the Garrison, and it was honestly one of the reasons Lance admired Shiro so much as a young teen at the Garrison. Seeing someone being so open and proud of who they were had been refreshing to teenage Lance. If there was anyone that could offer him advice it was Shiro. He bit the bullet. “I guess I’m trying to figure out my sexuality?” 

“Oh,” Shiro said, sounding only mildly surprised. “What aspect of it?” 

Lance was confused. “What do you mean?” 

“What part of your sexuality are you confused about? Sexuality is very complex and kind of all over the place,” Shiro clarified. 

“Who I’m attracted to, I guess?” Lance admitted, a blush rising to his cheeks. He would feel better after this, he was sure. He just had to hold out. He could feel the nervousness creeping into his chest. Lately, it always seemed like he was on the brink of crying. The feeling was more amplified since he supposedly decided that he should just talk about the things that were troubling him. 

“That can be tricky!” Shiro voiced and Lance had to keep himself from letting out a watery sob. His mom used to say that all the time, almost the exact way that Shiro said it. Her go to solution was to say the phrase in a silly voice. Humor was always present in his house growing up, especially whenever somebody was upset. Hearing it from someone like Shiro made it even better, especially since he was so homesick and distressed right now. “Anything I can offer advice about?” 

“How did you know you were attracted to guys? Like for real?” Lance breathed out. God, had he just said that? 

“There were a lot of telling signs,” Lance took a deep breath as Shiro spoke. He needed to calm down. “I always respected girls and thought that they were gorgeous and all that, but I never had any romantic feelings for one. I dated one girl and then realized that I just couldn’t like her in the way I was ‘supposed’ to. And then I realized that I was way to obsessed with Adam to be platonic. It was weird, since I had known him since we were thirteen. We grew up together, shared a room, were co-pilots. 

“I guess I started to realize that what I felt for Adam was incredibly strong. It wasn’t going to go away, so I decided to tell him. After a day of thinking about it, Adam came to the conclusion that he felt the same way I did. We officially became boyfriends, and you probably know the rest of the story. Adam and I ended up graduating and becoming teachers together, we were engaged and happy. Seriously, it was the happiest I had ever been,” Shiro’s voice cracked. Lance wasn’t sure what to do. Should he try to comfort him, how was he supposed to comfort him? Lance decided to place a hand on his shoulder, giving Shiro one of his own sad smiles. He knew what it was like to miss the easier and happier days on Earth. 

Shiro wiped at his eyes, returning Lance’s sad smile. “But, the point is, I allowed myself to feel what I was feeling and then let myself figure out what that was. I didn’t force myself to label it right away or anything. Sometimes, you just to live life in order to figure out who you are and what you feel. Experience what you are feeling before you try to sort it out.” 

“Thank you,” Lance said, taking every bit of his advice to heart. “I think I’m bisexual. I’ve been thinking and I think that I’m attracted to a lot of guys as well as girls. But I have a crush a guy and I guess that really solidifies it. But I really don’t want to have a crush on this guy.” 

“Why not?” Lance worried his lip between his teeth, knowing that if he explained why Shiro would definitely figure out who the guy was. Could he risk it? Oh well, fuck it. 

Lance clasped his hands in his lap, leaning back against the wall and steadily fixing his eyes on the floor in front of him. “He’s just. . . he’s everything that I’m not. And he didn’t even recognize me after being in the same class with me for like five years. But I felt like we actually became close for a bit. But then he left.” Lance tried to keep his voice from cracking. He didn’t want to admit that Keith leaving actually really bothered him. He thought that he would have stayed because of Lance, for Lance, because they had become some strange semblance of friends. But he had left and Lance had been pushed out by the team. 

“I know it’s not really his fault. I just wish things could go back to how they were.” Lance sniffled, trying to keep his traitorous tears from falling. He didn’t want Shiro to look at him differently. They were at war, he was supposed to be strong. God knows Shiro was. Practically everyone else was. Lance was always the weak link. The thought made him want to cry more. 

“I think we all do,” Shiro conceded. “I wish I could have saved all of you from this. You’re just kids, you shouldn’t have been forced into this war. Nobody should have, but especially not you kids.” 

“It’s not your fault,” Lance said defensively, noticing that Shiro probably blamed himself for accidentally getting them all involved when the Galra crashed onto Earth all those months ago. Lance looked up, locking eyes with Shiro and noticing that they were both tearing up. “But we’ll defeat the Galra for good. We’ll be able to put all of this behind us someday. We get to go home.” 

“I’ll get to see Adam,” Shiro smiled brokenly. 

“You’ll get to see him,” Lance promised. “I can get over myself and move on. I’ll see my family and my home again.” 

“Lance, you don’t have to ‘get over yourself,’” Shiro frowned. “Figuring out your identity is stressful and can be a long process. And we’re at war. You don’t need to keep everything to yourself. You can talk to me whenever you need to, and I know that Keith went through a similar experience a few years ago. I’m sure he’d want to be there for you, too.” 

Lance gave Shiro a watery smile. “Can we hug? I feel like this is a hugging moment.” 

Shiro laughed, turning to hug Lance with his good arm. Lance fell into the hug, closing his eyes and resting on Shiro’s shoulder. “Thank you. So much.” 

*

It had taken nearly another month and a half, but team Voltron had finally made it to Earth. They had finally made it back home. As they landed on Garrison property, Lance could practically feel Shiro’s anxious energy coming from the Red lion where he was flying with Keith. Lance fumbled with his seatbelt as his eyes scanned the crowd for his family. He wrestled his arm out of the seat as he noticed the mass of people on the left side of the field. He fled the black lion, rushing down the ramp so fast that he nearly tripped. “Mamà!” He yelled, running towards his family with his arms open wide. 

“Alejandro!” She yelled as her arms opened, allowing for her to collide into her. “You’ve grown!” Lance laughed, of course she would focus on that of all things. 

“I missed you so much,” He breathed, tears sliding down his face as he pulled back and started fervently hugging his siblings. 

“Mom wasn’t kidding, you’re huge,” Veronica commented as she pulled him tight. 

“Thanks, that’s always what a girl wants to hear.” Lance grunted as Veronica squeezed him extra tight for that comment. 

Lance ended the hug as an “Where is he?” bellowed from across the other side of the landing zone. He watched as a man he hadn’t seen in years pushed through the throng of people watching the paladins reunite with people, or in Keith’s case, standing to the side as his friends reunited. 

“Adam!” Shiro yelled once he heard Adam’s voice, trying to locate Adam in the crowd. He was standing next to Keith, probably unable to see where Adam was through the density of the horde of people. 

“Adam!” Lance yelled, successfully garnering his attention. “He’s over here!” 

“Where?” Adam pushed his way to Lance, clearly desperate to see Shiro. Lance understood the feeling completely. 

Lance gave a quick wave and apologetic glance to his family as he grabbed Adam’s wrist and lead him to where Keith and Shiro were standing away from the crowds. Lance heard him breathe in a gasp as his eyes found Shiro. 

“Oh my god,” He breathed, his wrist slipping out of Lance’s grip as he ran towards Shiro. “Takashi!” He yelled, arms extending towards him. “What the fuck happened to you!” Lance smiled as they finally collided, Shiro’s eyes slipping shut as his head rested on Adam’s. Lance continued to walk closer to them, stopping when he reached Keith standing on the sidelines. 

“Hey,” Keith said, his eyes sliding over Lance’s profile. 

“Hey, yourself,” Lance responded, eyes shifting to meet Keith’s. 

“Is it okay if I kiss you? It’s been hours since I’ve seen you in person,” Keith asked, glancing at Lance’s family as he asked about the kiss. 

“Oh, poor you,” Lance teased, leaning into him. He grabbed the collar of Keith’s shirt and pulled him closer to him, their noses bumping. 

“Did you tell your family?” Keith questioned, breath fanning against Lance’s lips. 

He shrugged. “They’ll figure it out. I’m sure they’re all watching me like a hawk right now.”

“Better give them a show,” Keith whispered. 

Lance snorted. “When did you start stealing my desperation for attention? That sounds like something I would say, it’s what I was thinking.” 

“Guess that’s what happens when you start dating someone. They rub off on you.” Keith winked at the innuendo he no doubt made on purpose before pressing forward and connecting their lips.

“What has Keith gotten up to in space?” Adam asked Shiro, eyebrows raised as he watched Keith kiss Lance. 

“You have no fucking clue.” Adam laughed as Shiro pulled him close for a kiss. 

And they lived on Earth for the rest of their days, always laughing and kissing.


End file.
